Hi.

Welcome to my blog. I live in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle on an Urban Farm (w/ five laying hens and a huge garden). I am a trained chef (w/ a certificate in food preservation), taught at a cooking school & like to share 'kitchen hacks' - culinary tips that save time, money & maximize flavor. If that isn't enough, I also run a food+tech startup called Barn2Door.com - a platform to help everyone easily find & buy food directly from farmers, fishers & ranchers (from CSA's to urban farm eggs to 1/2 a grass-fed cow).

Jan 6 question: what do a salad, a wedding and my son have in common?

My latest favorite salad is this Greek salad, pictured here. One of our favorite family movies is: My Big Fat Greek Wedding. And my sixth grade son just started a new social studies unit on Greek culture.

My son is learning everything from Greek religion to dress, history and geography. The 'dress' part of which added a twin size white sheet to my errand list (I often crack up when I consider what lands on my errand list, it is so random and often so unusual and so very mismatched that it warrants a chuckle. But I will talk about that more on another day). What you need to know: I bought a big white sheet so my son, like every other child in the sixth grade, can make togas to wear daily to class. Errands aside, this new dress code is worth a chuckle. And Target will wonder why they are out of flat, twin, white bed sheets. They will never know what hit them. Maybe I will buy a Queen white sheet and wear a togo myself; that would be cause for erupting chuckles in various circles...

Well, if you aren't going to wear a toga, and you don't have time to watch a movie (though, try to make time for this one, it is a hoot), you might as well make this simple, good for you salad. Course, you could upstage me: wear a toga while eating Greek salad and simultaneously watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Hands down: you win.

I wonder if I should pack this salad, along with some pita wedges, in my son's lunch during their Greek days?

Slice the red onion into bite size wedges; let sit in bowl with ice and icewater for an hour (takes out the extra zing so the flavors can meld); meanwhile, place olives, tomatoes, feta, cucumber in a bowl. Mix juice of the lemon with twice as much olive oil and pour over salad. Let marinate, occasionally stirring, at room temperature 1-2 hours. After 1 hour, drain onions and squeeze out water from onions. Add onions, KSCP, herbs to salad. Toss and let sit at least another hour, and more.